LinkedIn.com is one of the fastest growing professional networking sites consisting of people extending across the world. This immense networking site markets itself directly to the business world and is the largest social network of its kind. As of May 2009, LinkedIn has accumulated more than 42 million registered users in over 200 countries and includes over 170 industries. Although it is only one of the numerous social networking sites on the web, LinkedIn is by far one of the most popular and widely accepted business networking sites. It is a great way to stay connected with current co-workers, individuals you've worked with in the past and peers who work in related jobs or within the same field that you do. All of the Fortune 500 companies are represented in LinkedIn and of those, 499 are represented by director-level and senior-level employees.
When going head-to-head with some of the other major business/social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, LinkedIn has come out on top for professionals, sticking with its original mission: to be a business-only service rather than a more generalized social networking site. The use of both Facebook and MySpace as a means for business networking has been controversial. Offering a variety of features, such as messaging services, videos, photo albums and a plethora of game applications, it's easy to distract employees from actually doing their work. In the "CMS Watch's Enterprise Social Software & Collaboration Report 2009," LinkedIn outperformed Facebook and MySpace by surpassing both in information filtering and discussion features.
Enrolling in LinkedIn is a simple and quick process with basic membership being free of charge. When you join, you create a profile which summarizes your professional expertise and your accomplishments. Through this site, you can then maintain a list of known business contacts, known as connections. You can form solid connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect with you. Your network consists of not only your connections, but your connections' connections as well, which links you to a vast number of qualified professionals and experts.
A great way to quickly and easily realize the value of LinkedIn would be to enroll in one or more of the numerous groups that are offered. Through LinkedIn groups, you have the opportunity to meet and connect with like-minded business people and it's a great way for making connections with individuals you would otherwise never reach out to. LinkedIn groups were developed as a way to keep track of what other members have on their mind and what news they think is notable. The groups function has a forum for members to have candid conversations about products, opportunities, issues, events and referrals of information. Most active members find that their participation in a well suited, industry specific group directly enriches their job position at work. By joining a LinkedIn group, you can get recognized and enhance your professional network in these difficult economic times.
After joining a LinkedIn group, the badges or logos of the groups that you've joined are displayed on your profile page and in search results. This is a sort of visual branding associating you to each of the groups. You are also considered to be directly connected to your fellow group members and are allowed to see their full profiles. By joining only a few groups, you can add thousands of people to your network without having to do so one at a time. Finding groups of others who share your interests is a great way to expand your network with individuals with whom you already have something in common.
One of the most powerful aspects to the groups section is the discussion board. Using this feature within a group keeps you up-to-date on all of the "hot topics" from members within the group. Posting an insightful, well-constructed question has the potential to raise awareness of you and your company in a particular industry. This is especially beneficial if it is an industry that you are trying to penetrate. You can offer valuable information to others in the group which increases your likelihood of establishing new relationships and deepening existing relationships that may one day turn into business opportunities. Also, by being an active group member in this way, you can bring yourself notoriety by demonstrating your expertise and raising awareness. Discussions can be sorted by most current, popular topics and those in which you've participated in.
LinkedIn Events is a newer offering that allows you to create events such as conferences, tradeshows, seminars and training events. LinkedIn users will have access to thousands of business events to choose from. When searching for events, your results can be filtered by speakers, topics, conference organizer, industry, date and how close events are being held to your location. LinkedIn Events not only offers an event search but also recommendations based on the contents of your profile and your industry. You can also inform others on LinkedIn on whether you will be attending, presenting or exhibiting at the event. Once you specify this information, it will automatically be added to your digital resume on your LinkedIn profile. You can see who will be attending the event as well, which will be helpful when planning your pre and post networking activities.
Most of the LinkedIn services are free of charge, so why not take advantage of the networking benefits? LinkedIn is an effective networking tool, but only if you use it. With a reap-what-you-sow kind of mantra, you get out of it what you put into it.
